Riyadh truck explosion leaves many dead

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At least 23 people were killed and many more injured when a truck carrying flammable liquids crashed in Riyadh causing a large explosion, Saudi television said.

The civil defence department said a gas tanker had hit a flyover in eastern Riyadh on Thursday, causing a gas leak andan explosion.

"The truck driver was surprised by a road accident on its route, causing it to crash into one of the pillars of the bridge," spokesman Captain Mohamed Hubail Hammadi said.

An industrial building, several storeys high, was almost entirely destroyed by the blast while several nearby buildings were damaged, witness said.

"I was inside the building when the blast came. Then boom, the building collapsed. Furniture, chairs and cabinets blasted into the room I was in," said survivor Kushnoo Akhtara, a 55-year-old Pakistani worker, who was covered in dirt andbleeding from multiple cuts over his body.

Health ministry spokesman Saad al-Qahtani said 135 people were injured, mostly men and including some foreigners.